Design and in silico evaluation of an intraperitoneal–subcutaneous (IP–SC) artificial pancreas

• New design of artificial pancreas with IP insulin delivery is presented.
• IP–SC artificial pancreas achieved better glucose control than SC–SC design.
• IP–SC artificial pancreas was able to operate with 50% under-/overestimated gain.
• Better glucose control will reduce long- and short-term complications of diabetes.

Prandial glucose regulation is a major challenge for the artificial pancreas using subcutaneous insulin (without a feedforward bolus) due to insulin's slow absorption-peak (50–60 min). Intraperitoneal insulin, with a fast absorption peak (20–25 min), has been suggested as an alternative to address these limitations. An artificial pancreas using intraperitoneal insulin was designed and evaluated on 100 in silico subjects and compared with two designs using subcutaneous insulin with and without a feedforward bolus, following the three meal (40–70 g-carbohydrates) evaluation protocol. The design using intraperitoneal insulin resulted in a significantly lower postprandial blood glucose peak (38 mg/dL) and longer time in the clinically accepted region (13%) compared to the design using subcutaneous insulin without a feedforward bolus and comparable results to a subcutaneous feedforward bolus design. This superior regulation with minimal user interaction may improve the quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus.